Brandon Paul scored 11 of his 17 points in the final four minutes and No. 22 Illinois rallied from a late nine-point deficit to remain unbeaten with a 48-43 victory over visiting St. Bonaventure on Wednesday.

Illinois trailed 39-30 with 5:17 remaining after scoring only two field goals in the first 14 minutes of the second half.

The Fighting Illini (9-0), though, ended the game on a 18-4 run led by Paul, and sent St. Bonaventure (3-4) to its 17th straight loss against a ranked opponent.

Illinois, which missed 18 of its first 20 shots of the second half, started the comeback with a 3-pointer from D.J. Richardson, who scored 11 points.

Paul then scored the next eight straight Illini points to tie the game at 41. Meyers Leonard's short jump hook broke a 43-all tie and gave Illinois the lead for good with 58 seconds remaining.

Illinois is off to its best start since the 2005-06 team started 15-0 and the nine-game winning streak is the longest since Bruce Weber took over as coach nine years ago.

Andrew Nicholson led the Bonnies with 17 points and eight rebounds, but missed a potential tying-jumper and had a turnover in the final 30 seconds.